Hi, I am Pooja, the reader behind Bookish Perceptions.
My journey with books began with bedtime stories.
I started reading to my daughter, hoping to nurture in her a love for books and the joy of getting lost in a story. Little did I know that those bedtime stories would eventually become my own day and night stories.
Growing up, most of the books I read were academic. I had yet to discover books as windows to other worlds, mirrors to our own lives and doorways to experiences beyond our own. Sometimes I wonder what it would have been like to find that world earlier. But perhaps every reader finds their way to books in their own time.
For me, that time came through motherhood.
What began as reading aloud to my daughter slowly became a journey of discovery. Books opened doors to unfamiliar worlds, introduced me to different voices and perspectives, and showed me how a story can make us laugh, question, empathise and see the world a little differently.
Today, I do not have the luxury of sitting down for hours with a book. Life is filled with errands, chores, responsibilities, and everything in between. But I have learned to find little pockets of time wherever I can. A few pages between errands, a chapter while waiting, a stolen moment before the day begins or after it winds down.
Those little moments have become my escape.
For however long a few pages allow, I can step away from the everyday and into another world. I can meet unfamiliar characters, see life through different eyes, discover novel words and ideas, and simply disappear into a story for a little while.
Perhaps that is what reading means to me now. It is not about how many hours I can dedicate to a book. It is about making room for stories, even in the smallest spaces of a busy day.
Why Bookish Perceptions?
When I am not reading, I am a homemaker. My days are filled with the beautiful, ordinary rhythm of looking after a home and a family. But somewhere along the way, I also began wondering about the woman beyond those roles.
My daughter will not always need bedtime stories. One day, the little moments that fill my days now will become memories, and she will have a life, a home, and a world of her own.
That thought is not something I fear. It is something I know I will have to embrace.
But I also know that I want to build something of my own before that day arrives.
Perhaps Bookish Perceptions is, in some ways, my little preparation for that next chapter of life. A project that began with books, but is also about creating a space, an identity and something meaningful that continues to grow alongside me.
It is my answer to the future empty nest, not an empty space, but a desk waiting for me.
A reading desk.
Why a Book Blog in a World of Reels and Shorts?
We live in a world where content is increasingly consumed in seconds. Reels and shorts compete for our attention, and everything is designed to be quick, convenient, and easily digestible.
So why create a book blog?
Because there is something wonderfully unhurried about reading.
Reading asks us to slow down. To sit with words. To notice a phrase, learn an innovative word, imagine a world, follow a thought, and sometimes go back and read a sentence simply because we liked the way it sounded.
For me, reading is not just about consuming a story. It is about experiencing it through words. It is about allowing the language, the characters, and the ideas to take up space in our minds rather than rushing from one piece of content to the next.
That is why Bookish Perceptions exists.
This is a space for books in a world of endless scrolling. A place where stories can breathe, where words can linger, where ideas can be pondered and where perspectives can shift.
Because not everything needs to be consumed in seconds. Some things are worth sitting with.
And a well-written book is one of them.
What began as bedtime stories for my daughter has become a reading journey of my own, one page, one story and one stolen moment at a time.
And when the bedtime stories eventually end, Bookish Perceptions will be the story I continue writing for myself.